This program provides interdisciplinary training in muscle biology for pre- and postdoctoral students. The program emphasizes the functional, structural and molecular properties of skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. Our 16 faculty members come from 4 basic science departments and two interdepartmental degree granting programs at the School of Medicine, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and 2 departments in the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Affiliate faculty also come from 1 department in the College of Engineering at our sister campus, University of Maryland Baltimore County. Trainees are drawn from all of the participating departments and programs. Reflecting our diversity of faculty backgrounds, the training offered will range from the molecular biological determinants of muscle development and molecular aspects of structure and function of muscle proteins through cell biological aspects of muscle cytoskeleton and matrix, biophysical and physiological analysis of individual muscle cell function and biomechanical properties of whole muscles and muscular organs. Our faculty is nationally and internationally recognized in the areas of calcium control of muscle function and muscle cytoskeleton and matrix. Our students will receive training in these and in a variety of related areas, with emphasis on the use of several complimentary techniques to approach each question under investigation. The: major didactic aspect of the pre-doctoral training will be two one-semester interdisciplinary courses on muscle that are already regularly offered by the program faculty and which have been well received by past student groups. i We propose to begin the renewal period with 4 pre-doctoral trainees in the first and second years, to increase! to 5 pre-docs in the third, fourth and fifth year and to begin with 6 postdoctoral trainees and maintain that level throughout the granting period. Entering pre-doctoral trainees will continue to have a solid background in biology, chemistry and/or physics, excellent GRE scores and strong letters of recommendation. Incoming]'postdoctoral trainees will have completed a solid PhD thesis and have strong letters of recommendation.! Trainees from this program will be prepared to bring a wide range of approaches to bear on answering basic questions in muscle biology and on the bases for muscle diseases and their possible treatment or eventual cure. The program therefore serves a national need for competent multi-disciplinary investigators of muscle function and disease.